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Canadian ice dance leaders refuse to unravel — it takes two to tangle

Ice dancing — not usually considered a contact sport — almost turned into a scalping on Friday. Or, at the very least, an impromptu hair transplant.

That would be the rakishly off-centre up-bun on the side of Piper Gilles’ head. Which somehow got caught on the cummerbund button of Paul Poirier’s matching rhinestone-studded tuxedo jacket. In lieu of a twizzle, they contorted into a pretzel.

The duo had barely begun their rhythm segment at the Canadian figure skating championships — think of it as short dance — when they got all entangled, Gilles’ mouth agape in pain while Poirier struggled to detach his partner from his costume without breaking her neck, which involved an unplanned bit of under-and-over choreography.

“Can you imagine!” Gilles exclaimed in the mixed zone afterwards, although by then she had a grin on her face. As indeed she’d ended the routine on a peal of laughter suitable to their deliberately garish Broadway musical attire and “Tap Your Troubles Away” soundtrack.

“It’s a laugh, that’s for sure,” Gilles hee-hawed.

“And we tapped our troubles away,” cut in Poirier.

The episode, kind of a wardrobe malfunction 2.0, needs to be seen to be understood and nobody had ever seen such a thing before. Gilles attempted to describe what occurred in front of the audience at Mississauga’s Paramount Fine Foods Centre. “I tried to loop through, but as I looped though this just got stuck.” Points to the top of her head. “Yeah, there’s still hair coming off of his costume.’’

That was an unprecedented skating jam. “We’ve had bobby pins come out, but never stuck on each other,” said Gilles.

They’re veteran skaters though and they rolled with the snarl, hardly missed a step. Even though Gilles was thinking: “How ridiculous do I look right now? Because I was laughing about my hair, I don’t think I was so focused on my feet and I just let myself go on autopilot, let the training do the work.”

Seamless, pretty much, to the tune of an 88.86 score, more than 10 points clear of the couple sitting second, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha.

World junior gold medallists a year ago, the young team is tipped as ice dancing comers, boasting an evident panache and synchronicity. Judges were receptive to their showtunes medley and highly rewarding, despite Lagha tripping out of a twizzle. They earned a score of 77.26.

“Actually, I don’t know why but the magic number 77 came to my mind at the beginning of the competition,” said Lagha. “After that mistake on the twizzle, I thought maybe 75 or something. We still got 77. It’s a really good score. We’re really happy. We’ll take it.”

The Quebec tandem were only Canada’s second ever ice dance gold medallists in junior. The others? Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in 2006. And we all know where they ended up — two-time Olympic champions and most decorated ice dancers in history.

But Tessa and Scott are gone now to their just retirement rewards. Along with marquee Team Canada compatriots Patrick Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond, the pairs team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, all world champions. Dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, three-time Canadian title-holders, have stepped away from the sport, at least for this season.

So many familiar and beloved faces have departed the scene in a mass exodus. Thus, a time of immense flex for a powerhouse figure skating nation as the sport races on, skaters from around the globe reaching once unimagined heights — Russian teenage girls tossing off quads, American Nathan Chen and Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu routinely attempting four and five quads in their free skates.

While top-drawer prospects are moving through the Canadian figure skating pipeline — including 15-year-old 2019 silver medallist Stephen Gogolev, absent from these nationals as he recovers from injury — this feels very much like a lull, no-hopers mixed in with hangers-on and many who will probably never realize a stage grander than Canadians.

These results, however, will determine who books a berth for the 2020 world championships in Montreal in March. Canada, based on last year’s outcome, can send only one male, two females, two pairs teams and two sets of ice dancers.

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A year ago, Alicia Pineault was in the arena in Saint John, watching the national championships from a wheelchair.

She’d suffered two sprains in the left ankle, one of them a high sprain, just an hour before leaving home in Montreal but persevered, hopping a flight and then the bus to the rink, in the faint hope that a bombardment of physio would render her fit to compete.

Didn’t happen.

“It was really hard both physically and mentally trying to recover so quickly. I did give it a try, but at the end of the day time was missing.”

So the then-teenager was reduced to spectator, watching Alain Chartrand claim the senior women’s crown. But Chartrand, a university student, is sitting the season out and may never return to the poodle-eat-poodle world of competitive figure skating. And Pineault is here, atop the standings after Friday’s short program.

A lovely polished routine performed to “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse – not the kind of music usually associated with a sport that veers classic, Broadway or dopey pop — although not of the highest difficulty factor: Pineault’s required combination a triple toe/triple toe. But all clean, which is saying a lot given the execution by Canadian females following in the wake of world silver medallist Osmond.

“I’ve learned that there’s never a perfect scenario,’’ shrugged Pineault, who was in fact quite pleased with her skate, which drew a score of 63.15, nearly three points clear of Madeline Schizas from Oakville, with Newmarket’s Gabrielle Daleman in (a generous) third. “But I’m working with what I have. Right now I’m just happy to know that I feel healthy, and I’m just going to go out there and try my best and see what happens.”

Last year’s misfortunes sharpened her passion for the sport. “I watched the event, but it made me realize just how much I love skating. Not just the technical aspect, the whole getting ready, training.

“I rediscovered my love for skating.”

Not a whole lotta reciprocal love on this day for veteran competitor Daleman, the only ladies medallist returning from the 2019 campaign. The 22-year-old — 2017 world bronzed — had a mess of a jazzy routine, though it should be noted that she’s recovering from pneumonia.

“Pneumonia is no excuse. I’m not going to be one of those people who’s going to blame it on something. I am absolutely pissed off at how I skated. It was awful. It was not me or how I’ve been training. And I’m going to put it behind me and focus on tomorrow.”

Every discipline will be decided with free skates on Saturday.

Seasoned and reigning pair Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro have a 2.50 lead over Lubov Ilyushechkina and Charlie Bilodeau.

Rosie DiManno is a columnist based in Toronto covering sports and current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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